Who is the ancient author having a name similar to Petruvius who transcribed in a book precise notes and drawings of ancient mechanical devices from works of Archimedes and other ancient engineers?

Answer 1

VITRUVIUS, is the author of De architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture, conceived and written within the years 33 BC and 15 BC.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80--70 BC, died after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the military offices and was familiar with Roman weaponry.

Vitruvius has been coined as the world's first architect, which is incorrect, he is actually the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He wasn't so much a creative or intellectual engineering artist as he was a codifier of the existing period's architectural practices. In his 'ten chapter' book he writes explicit details on the mechanical design of ancient leverage and pulley machines, industrial waterwheels, aqueducts, water clocks, surveying instruments, and military weapons built for use in Roman society.

The original Latin text had no drawings, but so precise were his notes on the engineering of each device that in later years when De architectura was translated from Latin, blueprints were drawn from just his writings, which were then incorporated into revised book editions. The incorporated renderings and plates were constructed from the penned details of Vitruvius' studies; details which were so accurate that working model replicas of some machines have been crafted recently, over 2000 years later, fabricated strictly from his original instructions and the incorporated plate drawings . Vitruvius' De architectura is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity. Not until 1452, was the next major book on architecture written; Leon Battista Alberti's reformulation of the 'Ten Books'.